Menachot 37a (לז.) — the Talmud in English

Rabbi Yosei HaHarum [whose nose was sunken]

says: We find

indeed

that the right hand is called “yad,” as it is stated: “

And Joseph saw that his father placed

his right hand.”

And the other [explanation]:

the difficulty does not arise for the first tanna from that verse, because

“his right hand”

is explicitly

called so,

but

“yad” without qualification is not called

the right hand, but rather the left hand.

Rabbi Natan says:

There is no need to derive this from any of these verses; rather, we derive it as follows:

For it is

the verse itself that

says: “And you shall bind them

as a sign upon your hand, etc.,

and you shall write them,”

and we expound:

Just as writing

a mezuzah is done by the

right

hand, as this is the normal practice of most people, who write with the right hand, so too

the binding

of the tefillin is performed

with the right hand, and since the binding

is performed

with

the

right

hand,

the placement

is

on the left,

for he binds with his right hand the tefillin placed on his left hand. This is the conclusion of the language of the beraita.

And we raise the following question:

And Rabbi Yosei HaHarum,

who holds that it is impossible to derive from “your hand” that the place for tefillin is the left hand,

from where does he derive that the placement is on the left?

And we answer: Rabbi Yosei HaHarum

derives

the law that tefillin are placed on the left hand

from the same source from which Rabbi Natan derives it:

Just as writing is done with the right hand, so too binding is done with the right hand.

Rav Ashi said:

Rabbi Yosei HaHarum derives the law that tefillin are placed on the left hand from the fact that it is written

“yadkha” with a heh,

where the Torah could have written “yadkha” with the ordinary spelling but wrote it with the letter heh, which can be interpreted as

a weakened hand,

and this is the left hand, which does not have the strength of the right hand.

Rabbi Abba said to Rav Ashi:

From where do you know that this verse is to be expounded as teaching us about a weakened hand?

Perhaps

we should expound this verse as teaching us about

“your hand that has strength” [as though it were written “yad koah”—“a hand of strength”], and this is the right hand? [And similarly we find in Sota that the letter heh is interchangeable with the letter het, so that the term

[as though “hand” had been written with a different letter, meaning strength], which is the right hand? [And similarly we find in Tractate Sotah that the letter heh is interchanged with the letter het, so that the expression

he

ynikei means

he

ynikei.]

He said to him,

Rav Ashi:

Is it written with the

letter

het?

It is written with the letter kaf, and this indicates a weakened hand.

And this derivation of Rav Ashi is

in accordance with the dispute between tannaim,

who disagree over whether the left hand is derived from “yadkha,” meaning a weakened hand, as it is taught:

“Yadkha”

is written with an extra

heh

to teach us:

this

is the

left hand. Others say:

“Yadkha” includes one whose hand has been amputated,

meaning that his palm was amputated while his forearm remains; for the meaning of “yadkha,” a weakened hand, is a deficient and impaired hand.

Another beraita was taught:

One who has no

left forearm

at all

is exempt from tefillin

and is not obligated to place them on his right hand [but he is obligated with regard to head tefillin; see Sha'agat Aryeh, section 37].

Others say:

From the verse

“yadkha”

we learn

to include one whose hand has been amputated,

meaning that his palm was amputated while his forearm remains, and he is obligated.

The tannaim do not disagree in this beraita itself; rather, the first tanna says that one who has no forearm at all is exempt, while Others say that one who has no hand but does have a forearm is obligated. Tosafot; see also Magen Avraham, section 27, subsection 3.

The Sages taught: A left-handed person, whose greater strength is in his left hand and who performs his work with his left hand, places tefillin on his right hand ,

because his right hand

is his left hand,

which is his weaker hand.

And we raise an objection:

But it was taught:

A left-handed person

places them on his left,

because it

is the left hand of every person!

Abaye said:

This is not a contradiction,

because that beraita was taught

with regard to a left-handed person who places them on the left hand of every person

in the case of a

left-handed person

who is skilled with both hands,

whose strength in both hands is equal. Therefore, he places them on his left hand, as does everyone else.

The school of Menashe taught:

That which is written in the verse concerning hand tefillin: “And you shall bind them as a sign

upon your hand”—this refers to the upper arm,

as will be explained later in the Gemara. And that which is written in the verse concerning head tefillin: “And they shall be as frontlets

between your eyes”—this refers to the crown of the head.

And we raise the question:

Where

on the crown of the head is the place for placing the tefillin?

The school of Rabbi Yannai said:

He should place them on

the place where an infant’s brain is soft,

the place that is soft when he is a small child, one year old.

Pelimo asked Rabbi:

One who has two heads—on which of them should he place tefillin?

Rabbi thought that there was no such creature, and therefore said to him

Pelimo: You are mocking me, and you deserve punishment. Therefore,

either rise and go into exile,

leave for exile,

or accept excommunication upon yourself,

and sit in excommunication.

Meanwhile,

before Rabbi punished Pelimo,

a certain man came

before Rabbi

and said to him: A baby has been born to me who has two heads,

and he was uncertain with regard to the mitzva of redeeming the firstborn:

How much must we give to the priest?

Is he obligated to redeem him with ten sela'im because the two heads emerged together and he is considered like two people, or is he obligated to redeem him with only five sela'im?

A certain elder came and taught him:

He is obligated to give the priest

ten sela'im.

And we raise an objection:

Is that so? But Rami bar Hama taught: Since it is stated, “You shall surely redeem the firstborn of man,” I might understand that even

if

the firstborn dies

within

thirty

days, the father should be obligated to redeem him,